A tutela jurídica do patrimônio paisagístico natural nos destinos turísticos mediante o sistema de pagamento por serviço ambiental

Abstract

The natural patrimony is an environmental good which is protected by the law. The landscape, one of the ways in which this patrimony is presented, offers innumerable environmental services, such as ecological, aesthetic and cultural, and it is considered a diffuse right. However, in order to provide essential services, it is necessary to protect its integrity. In tourist destinations, the landscape performs an elementary function, and beyond keeping the composition of the image that the visitor has and expects from the place, it also guarantees the economic support of the tourism. Historically, the state has encouraged the unsustainable exploration of natural resources. It should be point out that Brazilian legislation itself has created some environmental liabilities in the course of time. The Brazilian legal system supports the landscape as a legally integrant to the concept of environment, and the provision of legal protection is under international conventions, revealing itself in federal, state, and sparse laws. Although the natural landscape be protected by Brazilians laws and be essential for the sustainable development, especially in tourist destinations, due to the close identification with the local landscape, it conflicts with the economic interests of the owners of the areas, who provide this environmental service, even though receive no incentive to do so. The PSA represents an economic mechanism that aims to collect funds with the beneficiaries of the conservation of the environmental services, as well as the allocation of resources with the suppliers of such services, in this case, the conservation of the natural patrimony. Once detected the importance of the environmental services provided by the landscape, it remains to devise strategies for their preservation that can be able to guide new development models. Payments for environmental services have as main objective to transfer resources, monetary or not, to those who voluntarily help to preserve, conserve or produce such services.